Trip to Grenada/First Week on the Island

Our Travels

After countless hours of packing and weighing suitcases, we were finally ready to go.  Our trip started off with a red-eye flight from PDX to JFK.  We payed to check our bags and were told that they would be good to go all the way to Grenada.  Checking in went much smoother than expected since we didn't have a returning flight to the US.  We got on the plane hoping to sleep through the first flight.  After freezing on other plane rides we took this summer, I was prepared and brought a travel blanket.  Sadly though the flight was extra cold, we froze the whole way there and hardly slept.  I was so excited to get off the plane only to find that the airport was even colder.  We waited a few hours and then we were off to Barbados!  The next plane was much warmer and we both were able to sleep almost the entire way there.  We walked off of the plane and found where we were supposed to go for connecting flights and found this:

Barbados airport connecting flight check-in counter

Nobody.  We sat down and waited for a little while until we were told that we would have to go to the main check in counter at the front of the airport.  Despite being told our bags were good all the way through, we had to get them from baggage claim and re-check them.  There were probably 5 people in front of us at the check-in counter and it took 45 minutes.  Good thing we had 8 hours to kill!  We also found out while we were in line that our carry on bags could only weigh 15 pounds!  We rearranged as much as we could by putting stuff into our backpacks.  They were so full we could barely zip them.  We got them down to about 18 pounds and were crossing our fingers that it was close enough.  Turns out they don't weight everyones carry-ons and we could have just left our stuff where it was.  But better safe than sorry right?  Once we were checked in we sat down to eat lunch.  We were lucky to find an internet connection so we could check in with our parents and let them know we were safe.

Barbados airport after we checking in

After we passed through security we no longer had an internet connection so we relied on movies and books for entertainment.  After a long day of waiting our flight was delayed an hour.  Nothing like waiting 9 hours for a 45 minute flight.  When we got to baggage claim in Grenada we found that only one of our 4 suitcases actually come on the flight with us.  Thankfully we had packed two days of clothes into our carry-ons.  We made it to our apartment, showered, and slept as best as we could with our travel blanket and neck pillows.  It was a long trip but we were grateful to arrive safely at
our new home.

Our First Week

The first week on the island was difficult.  Our internet was supposed to be turned on the morning after we arrived, but for some reason it wasn't working.  When we woke up in the morning we went straight to campus to use the internet there and figure out Evan's orientation schedule.  We ended up taking two campus tours that day, one walking around campus (which was rough because it was SO hot out) and then one bus tour that showed us where the grocery store was.  By the time we were done with all that we found out our bags and arrived and we went to the airport to pick them up.  Then it was time for dinner at KFC and our first grocery shopping experience.  That was really hard for me.  Everything here is already expensive, but when it's priced in a different currency it makes it seem even more overpriced.  

We weren't really sure how to get to church, but our neighbors had looked into it, so we walked to church with them on Sunday morning.  Our church building has an amazing view of Grand Anse Beach.

Grand Anse Beach

Beautiful view from our church building

On Sunday night we were invited to a game night at someone's house and that was a blast.  It was good to get to meet other couples in the branch.  

The next couple of days were pretty rough.  It was Carnival which is a holiday here that if I could describe I would.  All I know is that pretty much everything is closed.  So we were left hanging out with no internet and hardly anything to do.  We went exploring to find a beach near our house and had a good time there until we heard thunder.  It had been pretty stormy the night before and we didn't want to risk getting caught in a rain storm.  We left the beach earlier than we had originally planned, but we still had a good time.

Groom's Beach.  The small quite beach we found near our apartment.

Black sand.  We have heard that there are some beaches that have
mostly black sand, I'm excited to see them someday!

On Tuesday we went on another campus tour that took us up to the Grand Etang Forest and Annandale Falls.  In theory it would have been really fun, but because of Carnival we had to take the backroads there and we couldn't drive through downtown St. George's on our way back like we were supposed to.  The hike we went on was cut short because the University doesn't want to be liable for any injuries.  We hiked to the top of this super muddy hill and then there wasn't even a good view up there.  Then we went down to see a crater lake that is supposed to be the only freshwater lake on the island.  That was pretty until we got caught in a rain storm.  When it rains the fog comes in thick, so thick that we couldn't even see the lake anymore.  Annandale falls came next.  We were allowed to jump in, but with 60 people there on the tour it was just a little too crowded for our liking.  We will have to go back sometime with a smaller group because it seems like it could be a really fun place to spend an afternoon.

The beautiful freshwater lake

You can see the thick fog clearing out after it rained

The rest of the week Evan was busy with student orientation meetings.  On Friday night we finally had a chance to explore a little bit and we found a new grocery store and were able to familiarize ourselves with the area more.  Saturday we showed some friends around the area we had just explored and then we went swimming at Grand Anse Beach.  We enjoyed cooling off in the water and watching the sunset before returning home for the night.

Sunset at Grand Anse Beach

To wrap up orientation week the University had a bazaar on campus.  We got lots of free food and drinks and got to see what all the local businesses had to offer.  It was a pretty fun event and a good way to spend our last night before classes started.